arXiv subjects

Amin Mosallanezhad

Publications and source records attributed to Amin Mosallanezhad.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Radiation-ionization hydrodynamic simulations of AGN line-driven winds lead to transient shielding and BAL/UFO signatures

Disc winds from active galactic nuclei (AGN) can be launched by radiation pressure acting on spectral lines. However, launching a line-driven wind in the X-ray rich environment of AGN is challenging, as the wind easily gets over-ionized. Previous simulations suggested that X-ray self-shielding could enable line driving, though it remained unclear whether this relied on simplified treatments of radiation and ionization. Here, we revisit the X-ray shielding scenario using the first multi-frequency, multi-directional Monte-Carlo radiative photo-ionization hydrodynamical simulations of AGN line-driven winds. We find that sustaining a steady wind with mass-loss rates of $\approx20\%$ of the accretion rate requires an unrealistically weak X-ray flux ($α_{\rm OX}<-3$). For stronger X-ray emission ($-3<α_{\rm OX}<-1$), self-shielding is only transient, leading to episodic ejections with mass-loss rates approaching the accretion rate. Our steady winds naturally produce FeLoBAL, HiBAL, and broad emission line signatures, depending on the disc spectral energy distribution and the observer's inclination. At moderate X-ray luminosities ($α_{\rm OX}\sim-3$), transient winds can generate short-lived BAL and ultra-fast outflow (UFO) features. At the highest X-ray luminosities ($α_{\rm OX}\sim-1$), the winds are too ionized to form BALs, but still produce UFOs. These results imply that additional physics is required to explain BAL outflows at realistic X-ray levels and to drive winds strong enough for AGN feedback. Nonetheless, our simulations provide a new framework for interpreting the observed diversity of AGN outflow signatures with fully coupled radiation and dynamics.

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arXiv2025

The critical role of clumping in line-driven disc winds

Radiation pressure on spectral lines is a promising mechanism for powering disc winds from accreting white dwarfs (AWDs) and active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, in radiation-hydrodynamic simulations, overionization reduces line opacity and quenches the line force, which suppresses outflows. Here, we show that small-scale clumping can resolve this problem. Adopting the microclumping approximation, our new simulations demonstrate that even modest volume filling factors ($f_V \sim 0.1-0.01$) can dramatically increase the wind mass-loss rate by lowering its ionization state -- raising $\dot{M}_{\rm wind}$ and yielding $\dot{M}_{\rm wind}/\dot{M}_{\rm acc}\!\gtrsim\!10^{-4}$ for such modest filling factors. Clumpy wind models produce the UV resonance lines that are absent from smooth wind models. They can also reprocess a significant fraction of the disc luminosity and thus dramatically modify the broad-band optical/UV SED. Given that theory and observations indicate that disc winds are intrinsically inhomogeneous, clumping offers a physically motivated solution. Together, these results provide the first robust, self-consistent demonstration that clumping can reconcile line-driven wind theory with observations across AWDs and AGNs.

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arXiv2025

Monte-Carlo radiation hydrodynamic simulations of line-driven disc winds: relaxing the isothermal approximation

Disc winds play a crucial role in many accreting astrophysical systems across all scales. In accreting white dwarfs (AWDs) and active galactic nuclei (AGN), radiation pressure on spectral lines is a promising wind-driving mechanism. However, the efficiency of line driving is extremely sensitive to the ionization state of the flow, making it difficult to construct a reliable physical picture of these winds. Recently, we presented the first radiation-hydrodynamic (RHD) simulations for AWDs that incorporated detailed, multi-dimensional ionization calculations via fully frequency-dependent radiative transfer, using the Sirocco code coupled to PLUTO. These simulations produced much weaker line-driven winds (Mdot_wind / Mdot_acc < 1e-5 for our adopted parameters) than earlier studies using more approximate treatments of ionization and radiative transfer (which yielded Mdot_wind / Mdot_acc ~ 1e-4). One remaining limitation of our work was the assumption of an isothermal outflow. Here, we relax this by adopting an ideal gas equation of state and explicitly solving for the multi-dimensional temperature structure of the flow. In the AWD setting, accounting for the thermal state of the wind does not change the overall conclusions drawn from the isothermal approximation. Our new simulations confirm the line-driving efficiency problem: the predicted outflows are too highly ionized, meaning they neither create optimal driving conditions nor reproduce the observed ultraviolet wind signatures. Possible solutions include wind clumping on sub-grid scales, a softer-than-expected spectral energy distribution, or additional driving mechanisms. With the physics now built into our simulations, we are well-equipped to also explore line-driven disc winds in AGN.

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arXiv2025

SIROCCO: A Publicly Available Monte Carlo Ionization and Radiative Transfer Code for Astrophysical Outflows

Outflows are critical components of many astrophysical systems, including accreting compact binaries and active galactic nuclei (AGN). These outflows can significantly affect a system's evolution and alter its observational appearance by reprocessing the radiation produced by the central engine. Sirocco (Simulating Ionization and Radiation in Outflows Created by Compact Objects - or "the code formerly known as Python") is a Sobolev-based Monte Carlo ionization and radiative transfer code. It is designed to simulate the spectra produced by any system with an azimuthally-symmetric outflow, from spherical stellar winds to rotating, biconical accretion disc winds. Wind models can either be parametrized or imported, e.g. from hydrodynamical simulations. The radiation sources include an optically thick accretion disc and various central sources with flexible spectra and geometries. The code tracks the "photon packets" produced by the sources in any given simulation as they traverse and interact with the wind. The code assumes radiative near-equilibrium, so the thermal and ionization state can be determined iteratively from these interactions. Once the physical properties in the wind have converged, Sirocco can be used to generate synthetic spectra at a series of observer sightlines. Here, we describe the physical assumptions, operation, performance and limitations of the code. We validate it against tardis, cmfgen and cloudy, finding good agreement, and present illustrative synthetic spectra from disc winds in cataclysmic variables, tidal disruption events, AGN and X-ray binaries. Sirocco is publicly available on GitHub, alongside its associated data, documentation and sample input files covering a wide range of astrophysical applications.

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arXiv2023

Machine learning-based photometric classification of galaxies, quasars, emission-line galaxies, and stars

This paper explores the application of machine learning methods for classifying astronomical sources using photometric data, including normal and emission line galaxies (ELGs; starforming, starburst, AGN, broad line), quasars, and stars. We utilized samples from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 17 (DR17) and the ALLWISE catalog, which contain spectroscopically labeled sources from SDSS. Our methodology comprises two parts. First, we conducted experiments, including three-class, four-class, and seven-class classifications, employing the Random Forest (RF) algorithm. This phase aimed to achieve optimal performance with balanced datasets. In the second part, we trained various machine learning methods, such as $k$-nearest neighbors (KNN), RF, XGBoost (XGB), voting, and artificial neural network (ANN), using all available data based on promising results from the first phase. Our results highlight the effectiveness of combining optical and infrared features, yielding the best performance across all classifiers. Specifically, in the three-class experiment, RF and XGB algorithms achieved identical average F1 scores of 98.93 per~cent on both balanced and unbalanced datasets. In the seven-class experiment, our average F1 score was 73.57 per~cent. Using the XGB method in the four-class experiment, we achieved F1 scores of 87.9 per~cent for normal galaxies (NGs), 81.5 per~cent for ELGs, 99.1 per~cent for stars, and 98.5 per~cent for quasars (QSOs). Unlike classical methods based on time-consuming spectroscopy, our experiments demonstrate the feasibility of using automated algorithms on carefully classified photometric data. With more data and ample training samples, detailed photometric classification becomes possible, aiding in the selection of follow-up observation candidates.

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arXiv2023

Global Transonic Solution of Hot Accretion Flow with Thermal Conduction

We examine the effect of thermal conduction on the low-angular momentum hot accretion flow (HAF) around non-rotating black holes accreting mass at very low rate. While doing so, we adopt the conductive heat flux in the saturated form, and solve the set of dynamical equations corresponding to a steady, axisymmetric, viscous, advective accretion flow using numerical methods. We study the dynamical and thermodynamical properties of accreting matter in terms of the input parameters, namely energy ($\varepsilon_0$), angular momentum ($\ell_0$), viscosity parameter ($α$), and saturation constant ($Φ_{\rm s}$) regulating the effect of thermal conduction. We find that $Φ_{\rm s}$ plays a pivotal role in deciding the transonic properties of the global accretion solutions. In general, when $Φ_{\rm s}$ is increased, the critical point ($r_{\rm c}$) is receded away from the black hole, and flow variables are altered particularly in the outer part of the disc. To quantify the physically acceptable range of $Φ_{\rm s}$, we compare the global transonic solutions with the self-similar solutions, and observe that the maximum saturation constant ($Φ^{\rm max}_{\rm s}$) estimated from the global solutions exceeds the saturated thermal conduction limit ($Φ_{\rm sc}$) derived from the self-similar formalism. Moreover, we calculate the correlation between $α$ and $Φ^{\rm max}_{\rm s}$ and find ample disagreement between global solutions and self-similar solutions. Further, using the global flow variables, we compute the Bernoulli parameter ($Be$) which remains positive all throughout the disc, although flow becomes loosely unbound for higher $Φ_{\rm s}$. Finally, we indicate the relevance of this work in the astrophysical context in explaining the possibility of massloss/outflows from the unbound disc.

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arXiv2022

Numerical Simulation of Hot Accretion Flow around Bondi Radius

Previous numerical simulations have shown that strong winds can be produced in the hot accretion flows around black holes. Most of those studies focus only on the region close to the central black hole, therefore it is unclear whether the wind production stops at large radii around Bondi radius. Bu et al. 2016 studied the hot accretion flow around the Bondi radius in the presence of nuclear star gravity. They find that when the nuclear stars gravity is important/comparable to the black hole gravity, winds can not be produced around the Bondi radius. However, for some galaxies, the nuclear stars gravity around Bondi radius may not be strong. In this case, whether winds can be produced around Bondi radius is not clear. We study the hot accretion flow around Bondi radius with and without thermal conduction by performing hydrodynamical simulations. We use the virtual particles trajectory method to study whether winds exist based on the simulation data. Our numerical results show that in the absence of nuclear stars gravity, winds can be produced around Bondi radius, which causes the mass inflow rate decreasing inwards. We confirm the results of Yuan et al. which indicates this is due to the mass loss of gas via wind rather convectional motions.

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arXiv2022

Global structure and dynamics of slowly rotating accretion flows

We study the global solutions of slowly rotating accretion flows around the supermassive black hole in the nucleus of an elliptical galaxy. The velocity of accreted gas surrounding the black hole is initially subsonic and then falls onto the black hole supersonically, so accretion flow must be transonic. We numerically solve equations from the Bondi radius to near the black hole. The focus of our discussion will be on the properties of slightly rotating accretion flows in which radiative losses have been ignored. This study discusses how outer boundary conditions (the temperature and specific angular momentum at the outer boundary) influence accretion flow dynamics. We investigate two physically discontinuous regimes: The Bondi-like type accretion and the Disk-like type accretion. A Bondi-like accretion occurs when the specific angular momentum at the Bondi radius $ \ell_{B} $ is smaller than the specific angular momentum at the marginally stable orbit $ \ell_{ms} $. In comparison, a Disk-like accretion occurs when the specific angular momentum at the Bondi radius $ \ell_{B} $ is larger than the specific angular momentum of the marginally stable orbit $ \ell_{ms} $. We also keep the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium and compare our results with the case in which it is not considered. According to this study, considering the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium reduces the mass accretion rate. Additionally, we find our solution for different ranges of the viscosity parameter $α$. Finally, we study the effect of galaxy potential on slowly rotating accretion flows.

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arXiv2022

Self-similar Solution of Hot Accretion Flow with Thermal Conduction and Anisotropic Pressure

We explore the effects of anisotropic thermal conduction, anisotropic pressure, and magnetic field strength on the hot accretion flows around black holes by solving the axisymmetric, steady-state magnetohydrodynamic equations. The anisotropic pressure is known as a mechanism for transporting angular momentum in weakly collisional plasmas in hot accretion flows with extremely low mass accretion rates. However, anisotropic pressure does not extensively impact the transport of the angular momentum, it leads to shrinkage of the wind region. Our results show that the strength of the magnetic field can help the Poynting energy flux overcomes the kinetic energy flux. This result may be applicable to understand the hot accretion flow in the Galactic Center Sgr A* and M87 galaxy.

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arXiv2021

Self-similar solution of hot accretion flow: the role of kinematic viscosity coefficient

We investigate the dependency of the inflow-wind structure of the hot accretion flow on the kinematic viscosity coefficient. In this regard, we propose a model for the kinematic viscosity coefficient to mimic the behavior of the magnetorotational instability and would be maximal at the rotation axis. Then, we compare our model with two other prescriptions from numerical simulations of the accretion flow. We solve two-dimensional hydrodynamic equations of hot accretion flows in the presence of the thermal conduction. The self-similar approach is also adopted in the radial direction. We calculate the properties of the inflow and the wind such as velocity, density, angular momentum for three models of the kinematic viscosity prescription. On inspection, we find that in the model we suggested wind is less efficient than that in two other models to extract the angular momentum outward where the self-similar solutions are applied. The solutions obtained in this paper might be applicable to the hydrodynamical numerical simulations of the hot accretion flow.

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arXiv2021

Two-dimensional Inflow-Wind Solution of Hot Accretion Flow. I. Hydrodynamics

We solve the two-dimensional hydrodynamic equations of hot accretion flow in the presence of the thermal conduction. The flow is assumed to be in steady-state and axisymmetric, and self-similar approximation is adopted in the radial direction. In this hydrodynamic study, we consider the viscous stress tensor to mimic the effects of the magnetorotational instability for driving angular momentum. We impose the physical boundary conditions at both the rotation axis and the equatorial plane and obtain the solutions in the full $ r-θ$ space. We have found that thermal conduction is indispensable term for investigating the inflow-wind structure of the hot accretion flows with very low mass accretion rates. One of the most interesting results here is that the disc is convectively stable in hot accretion mode and in the presence of the thermal conduction. Furthermore, the properties of wind and also its driving mechanisms are studied. Our analytical results are consistent with previous numerical simulations of hot accretion flow.

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arXiv2019

Two-dimensional Inflow-outflow Solution of Supercritical Accretion Flow

We present the two-dimensional inflow-outflow solutions of radiation hydrodynamic (RHD) equations of supercritical accretion flows. Compared with prior studies, we include all components of the viscous stress tensor. We assume steady state flow and use self-similar solutions in the radial direction to solve the equations in $ r-θ$ domain of the spherical coordinates. The set of differential equations have been integrated from the rotation axis to the equatorial plane. We find that the self-similarity assumption requires that the radial profile of density is described by $ ρ(r) \propto r^{-0.5} $. Correspondingly, the radial profile of the mass inflow rate decreases with decreasing radii as $ \dot{M}_\mathrm{in} \propto r $. Inflow-outflow structure has been found in our solution. In the region $ θ> 65^{\circ} $ there exist inflow while above that flow moves outward and outflow could launch. The driving forces of the outflow are analyzed and found that the radiation force is dominant and push the gas particles outwards with poloidal velocity $ \sim 0.25 c $. The properties of outflow are also studied. The results show that the mass flux weighted angular momentum of the inflow is lower than that of outflow, thus the angular momentum of the flow can be transported by the outflow. We also analyze the convective stability of the supercritical disk and find that in the absence of the magnetic field, the flow is convectively unstable. Our analytical results are fully consistent with the previous numerical simulations of the supercritical accretion flow.

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arXiv2019

Radiation-driven outflows in AGNs: Revisiting feedback effects of scattered and reprocessed photons

We perform two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of slowly rotating accretion flows in the region of $ 0.01-7\, \mathrm{pc} $ around a supermassive black holes with $ M_\mathrm{BH} = 10^{8} M_{\odot} $. The accretion flow is irradiated by the photons from the central active galactic nucleus (AGN). In addition to the direct radiation from the AGN, we have also included the "re-radiation", i.e., the locally produced radiation by Thomson scattering, line and bremsstrahlung radiation. Compare to our previous work, we have improved the calculation of radiation force due to the Thomson scattering of X-ray photons from the central AGN. We find that this improvement can significantly increase the mass flux and velocity of outflow. We have compared the properties of outflow --- including mass outflow rate, velocity, and kinetic luminosity of outflow --- in our simulation with the observed properties of outflow in AGNs and found that they are in good consistency. This implies that the combination of line and re-radiation forces is the possible origin of observed outflow in luminous AGNs.

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arXiv2018

The Effects of Magnetic Field Strength on Properties of Wind Generated from Hot Accretion Flow

Observations indicate that wind can be generated in hot accretion flow. By performing numerical simulations, Yuan et al. studied the detailed properties of wind generated from weakly magnetized accretion flow. However, properties of wind generated from strongly magnetized hot accretion flow have not been studied. In this paper, we study the properties of wind generated from both weakly and strongly magnetized accretion flow. We focus on how the magnetic field strength affects the wind properties. We solve time-steady two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations of black hole accretion in the presence of large-scale magnetic field. We assume self-similarity in radial direction. The magnetic field is assumed to be evenly symmetric with the equatorial plane. We find that wind exists in both weakly and strongly magnetized accretion flow. When magnetic field is weak (magnetic pressure is more than 2 orders of magnitude smaller than gas pressure), wind is driven by gas pressure gradient and centrifugal forces. When magnetic field is strong (magnetic pressure is slightly smaller than gas pressure), wind is driven by gas pressure gradient and magnetic pressure gradient forces. The power of wind in strongly magnetized case is just slightly larger than that in weakly magnetized case. The power of wind lies in a range $ P_W \sim 10^{-4}-10^{-3} \dot M_{\rm in} c^2 $, with $ \dot M_{\rm in} $ and $ c $ being mass inflow rate and speed of light, respectively. The possible role of wind in active galactic nuclei feedback is briefly discussed.

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arXiv2017

The effects of toroidal magnetic field on the vertical structure of hot accretion flows

We solved the set of two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations for optically thin black hole accretion flows incorporating toroidal component of magnetic field. Following global and local MHD simulations of black hole accretion disks, the magnetic field inside the disk is decomposed into a large scale field and a fluctuating field. The effects of the fluctuating magnetic field in transferring the angular momentum and dissipating the energy are described through the usual $ α$ description. We solved the MHD equations by assuming steady state and radially self-similar approximation in $ r-θ$ plane of spherical coordinate system. We found that as the amount of magnetic field at the equatorial plane increases, the heating by the viscosity decreases. In addition, the maximum amount of the heating by the viscous dissipation is produced at the mid-plane of the disk, while that of the heating by the magnetic field dissipation is produced at the surface of the disk. Our main conclusion is that in terms of the no-outflow solution, thermal equilibrium still exists for the strong magnetic filed at the equatorial plane of the disk.

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arXiv2016

The influence of outflow in supercritical accretion flows

We solve the radiation-hydrodynamic (RHD) equations of supercritical accretion flows in the presence of radiation force and outflow by using self similar solutions. Compare with the pioneer works, in this paper we consider power-law function for mass inflow rate as $ \dot{M} \propto r^{s} $. We found that $ s = 1 $ when the radiative cooling term is included in the energy equation. Correspondingly, the effective temperature profile with respect to the radius was obtained as $ T_{\text{eff}} \varpropto r^{-1/2} $. In addition, we investigated the influence of the outflow on the dynamics of the accretion flow. We also calculated the continuum spectrum emitted from the disk surface as well as the bolometric luminosity of the accretion flow. Furthermore, our results show that the advection parameter, $ f $, strongly depends on mass inflow rate.

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arXiv2016

Two-dimensional inflow-wind solution of black hole accretion with an evenly symmetric magnetic field

We solve the two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations of black hole accretion with the presence of magnetic field. The field includes a turbulent component, whose role is represented by the viscosity, and a large-scale ordered component. The latter is further assumed to be evenly symmetric with the equatorial plane. The equations are solved in the $r-θ$ plane of a spherical coordinate by assuming time-steady and radially self-similar. An inflow-wind solution is found. Around the equatorial plane, the gas is inflowing; while above and below the equatorial plane at a certain critical $θ$ angle, $θ\sim 47^{\circ}$, the inflow changes its direction of radial motion and becomes wind. The driving forces are analyzed and found to be the centrifugal force and the gradient of gas and magnetic pressure. The properties of wind are also calculated. The specific angular momentum of wind is found to be significantly larger than that of inflow, thus wind can transfer angular momentum outward. These analytical results are compared to those obtained by the trajectory analysis based on MHD numerical simulation data and good agreements are found.

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arXiv2013

Structure of Advection-Dominated Accretion Disks with Outflows: Role of Toroidal Magnetic Field

The main aim of this paper is studying the effect of toroidal magnetic field on the structure of Advection-Dominated Accretion Flows (ADAF) in the presence of the turbulence viscosity and diffusivity due to viscosity and magnetic field respectively. We use self-similar assumption in radial direction to solve the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations for hot accretion disk. We use spherical coordinate $ (r, θ, φ) $ to solve our equation. The toroidal component of magnetic field is considered and all three components of the velocity field $ \mathbf{v}\equiv (v_{r}, v_θ, v_φ) $ are present in our work. We reduce the equations to a set of differential equations about $ θ$ and apply the symmetric boundary condition at the equatorial plane of the disk. Our results indicate that the outflow region, where the redial velocity becomes positive in a certain inclination angle $ θ_{0} $, always exist. The results represent that the stronger the magnetic field, the smaller the inclination angle, $ θ_{0} $ becomes. It means that a magnetized disk is thinner compared to a non-magnetized disk. According to the work by \citealt{jw}, we can define three regions. The first one is called inflow region, which starts from the disk midplane to a certain inclination $ θ_0 $ where $ v_{r}(θ_{0}) = 0 $. In this region, the velocity has a negative value and the accretion material moves toward the central object. The outflow region, where $ v_{r}(θ) > 0 $, is placed between $ θ_{0} $ and surface of the disk, $ θ_{0} < θ< θ_{s} $. In this area, the accretion flow moves away from the central object. The third region, which is located between the surface of the disk and the polar axis, is called wind region.

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